Most-read celebrity stories of 2012

It was another year of celebrity break-ups, pregnancies and affairs, but the biggest story of the year was the sudden death of Whitney Houston.

It was another year of celebrity break-ups, pregnancies and affairs, but the biggest story of the year was the sudden death of Whitney Houston.

The estranged niece of the head of the Church of Scientology warned Katie Holmes after her break-up with Tom Cruise in June that the organisation is "no place for an innocent child" like her daughter Suri.

Oscar-winner Russell Crowe split from his wife of nine years, Danielle Spencer, in October.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were forced to go public with the news that they were expecting much earlier than intended after the 30-year-old Duchess was admitted to hospital with hyperemesis gravidarum, a form of severe morning sickness that is also associated with multiple births.

Bobbi Kristina, the 18-year-old daughter of Whitney Houston, was hospitalised suffering stress and anxiety after the death of her mother in February.

Lenny Ann Low meets radio's (accidentally) controversial woman.

The headline says it all. With sealed divorce papers and only short, boring statements from Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, gossip websites relied heavily on their secret "sources", speculation and simple arithmetic to get to the bottom of the high-profile split.

Danielle Spencer's former TV dancing partner, Damian Whitewood, broke his silence on rumours he was somehow involved in Spencer's October break-up with Russell Crowe, calling the rumours 'crazy'.

A US soap star took his own life on his 47th birthday just hours after putting down his beloved pit bull, which was believed to be the target of an anti-dog campaign in his New York apartment building.

Whitney Houston, who reigned as pop music's queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, died at the age of 48 on February 11. At her peak, Houston had been the golden girl of the music industry, and from the middle 1980s to the late 1990s, she was one of the world's best-selling artists. Her death on the eve of the Grammys, at which she had been expected to appear, came as a shock to Hollywood, with celebrities from Mariah Carey to Quincy Jones to Rihanna paying tribute on Twitter.